Photos: South Carolina bowl-clinching win gallery
Photos from the Vanderbilt vs South Carolina game via CJ Driggers.
More: South Carolina, Spencer Rattler has best day passing this season in Vandy win
By Collyn Taylor
Dakereon Joyner slipped and slided in the backfield, evading pressure and finding one of his secondary, or even tertiary, reads on the play.
He fired, a ball that just got to Juice Wells, who evaded a defender and ran behind a lead-blocking Austin Stogner into the endzone for a 68-yard touchdown.
The play, one of the longest of the season for South Carolina, set the tone for what was a prolific passing night in a 38-27 win over Vanderbilt.
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“It felt good, man, especially seeing all the guys go,” Wells said. “It definitely felt good.”
The Gamecocks ultimately threw for 284 yards on 28 attempts, averaging over 10 yards per pass attempt and 14.2 yards per completion.
It’s the first time in nine seasons South Carolina threw for over 280 yards on fewer than 30 attempts. The last time the Gamecocks did it was the 2014 Capital One Bowl against Wisconsin.
“First off, coach Satt was dialing up out there. It’s up to us out there and makes plays. Spencer, he played with a ton of confidence tonight and let it rip. Spence, he can make plays when he scrambles but I feel like he’s learning and maturing week by week sitting in the pocket and making the throws he made tonight. I would agree it was one of his best games tonight,” Josh Vann said.
“When we get like that everyone can see we’re a tough team to beat.”
South Carolina ultimately had nine different receivers catch passes, led by Wells’s four catches for 110 yards, with 10 of its 20 completions going for at least 15 yards.
After an absolutely anemic performance against Missouri, South Carolina responded with one of its more prolific passing attacks of the season.
It’s just the fourth time over South Carolina’s scored at least 38 points against an SEC opponent.
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“In 29 years of coaching, (Frank Beamer) always told his coaches after a loss or win things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem. Things are somewhere in the middle. I told the team that on Tuesday. I know it looked awful on Saturday night, guys. And I know it’s crazy for me to sit here and say it wasn’t as bad as it looked. But it wasn’t as bad as it looked,” Shane Beamer said.
“I know the doom and gloom out there didn’t feel that way with so many people this week. But we were really close on a lot of plays. We had shots called last week that, for whatever reason, we weren’t able to connect on. Whether it was protection and Spencer got pressure or whether it was Spencer didn’t throw it to a guy we wanted him to throw it to or a play call. We all had a hand in it.”
Spencer Rattler, Beamer and Josh Vann all agreed this was probably Rattler’s best game of his South Carolina career, leading the offense to a 38-point outing.
Rattler ultimately finished completing 70 percent of his passes for 8.1 yards an attempt and four scores. He might have had a few bad plays here or there. But every time South Carolina needed him to make a play, he did.
Of the four third downs South Carolina converted Saturday, two were with at least nine yards to go.
While it wasn’t perfect, it was probably the Gamecocks’ best passing day against an FBS opponent this season.
“Oh yeah. We had multiple third and longs we converted. Again, the O-line did a good job giving me time back there,” Rattler said. “Juice had a big-time route on that dig route he caught in a zone for a big-time first down. We had multiple plays like that. We just executed, went out there and believed in it.”
